Tuesday, 25 January 2011

Last week, we had the annual trotting out of the 'Blue Monday' myth - supposedly the most depressing day of the year. It has rightly been dismissed as 'churnalism' and 'bullshit' by Ben Goldacre:

The "most depressing day of the year" began life as a "wacky academic" equation story. This is the kind of thing PR companies offer as "advertising equivalent exposure" for companies who want their brand in the papers.

The equation stunt was not the work of an academic, it was paid for by Sky Travel, and Blue Monday comes just after your first pay cheque arrives, the perfect time to book a holiday.

Well, according to several suspiciously similar stories in the papers today, then 10am on Tuesday is the most stressful time of the week. Here's the Mirror:

Every article contains the same 'facts' from what they all call 'research'. They all contain the same quotes from the same spokesman and much the same text in between. For example, here's the Mail:

The study of office workers aged between 18 and 45 quizzed respondents on their level of stress throughout the typical working week.

It found a quarter regularly feel stressed at work and for three quarters of workers they regularly come to the end of their tether by 11.16am each day.But one in five find it gets too much before nine o'clock.

Four in ten blamed heavy workloads and a third said dealing with difficult clients or customers left them feeling frazzled.

Yet three in ten admitted it was their boss which caused them tension in the office and one in six blamed their colleagues for not listening to their cries for help.

And the Telegraph:

The study of office workers aged between 18 and 45 quizzed respondents on their level of stress throughout the typical working week.

It found a quarter regularly feel stressed at work and for three quarters of workers they regularly come to the end of their tether by 11.16am each day.But one in five find it gets too much before nine o'clock.

Four in ten blamed heavy workloads and a third said dealing with difficult clients or customers left them feeling frazzled.

Yet three in ten admitted it was their boss which caused them tension in the office and one in six blamed their colleagues for not listening to their cries for help.

Yes, they are identical.

It is revealed, somewhat inevitably, that this 'research' is from a recruitment agency. They wouldn't have an interest in getting people thinking about their 'stressful' jobs, would they?

Yet it is only the Express, in its final sentence, that truly gives the game away:

[The agency] has just launched a smartphone app designed to take the stress out of finding a new job.

So a dubious bit of 'research' sent out to journalists in a press release in order to sell a smartphone app gets the classic 'churnalism' treatment.